SA Rugby Injury and Illness Surveillance and Prevention Project (SARIISPP) Super Rugby Unlocked and the Carling Currie Cup Premiership Competition Injury Surveillance Report 2020/21

Abstract

The outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID19) resulted in the 2020 Super Rugby competition being suspended in March 2020, at completion of round 7 of the competition, and the 2020 Carling Currie Cup competition did not take place as originally scheduled. Seven South African Rugby franchises returned to official competition on 9 October 2020. The seven franchises first played in a 7-round 2020 Super Rugby Unlocked tournament, after which the winners of this part of the combined tournaments, the Vodacom Blue Bulls, were crowned as the Super Rugby Unlocked Champions. This was followed immediately by a 7-round 2020/21 Carling Currie Cup, with knockout play-off rounds. The points from the Super Rugby Unlocked tournament were carried over into the Carling Currie Cup. This culminated in the Vodacom Blue Bulls also being crowned as the Carling Currie Cup 2020/21 Champions after the final play-off match. As the Super Rugby Unlocked and Carling Currie Cup competitions included the same seven franchises, with no break afforded between competitions, this report presents the combined data from both tournaments. Although the structure of the 2020/21 season was unique, data analysis revealed no apparent reasons for these data to be treated differently to previous seasons' data. As such the collective competition data is referred to as the 'Carling Currie Cup' 2020/21 throughout this report. Despite the disruptions to the 2020 season, and players potentially being unable to maintain the physical qualities necessary to protect themselves against injury, our analysis tells a positive story about how players were managed during these times, with injury rates being comparable to previous seasons' injury rates, and within the expected season-to-season limits of variation for the Carling Currie Cup. As part of the SA Rugby Injury and Illness Surveillance and Prevention Project (SARIISPP), the Carling Currie Cup 2020/21 Premiership Division Competition (the 'Carling Currie Cup') injury data were recorded throughout the tournament by the medical doctors and medical support staff of the respective teams. All seven teams were required to record every match and training injury that occurred in their team. The injury rate of Time-Loss injuries for the Carling Currie Cup 2020/21 was 91 (76 to 106) injuries per 1000 player hours (mean and 95% confidence intervals), which is higher than the international rate of 81 (63 to 105) injuries per 1000 player hours [1], but within the expected limits of season-to-season variation for the Carling Currie Cup. This equates to 1.8 injuries per team per match. The Cell C Sharks had the highest injury rate for Time-Loss injuries for the 2020/21 tournament and this was significantly higher than their 2014-2019 tournament average. Despite having the highest injury rate, the Cell C Sharks had the lowest average severity and thus experienced a low burden of injury. What this means, is that although they had a high number of injuries, they did not lose many days of training and match play due to these injuries. This finding is interesting to note as the Cell C Sharks ranked 2nd in the tournament, and in previous years the teams who ranked in 1st or 2nd positions of the competition had significantly lower injury rates than those who ranked in last position [2]. The Vodacom Blue Bulls, who won both the Super Rugby Unlocked phase of the tournament and the Carling Currie Cup, had a moderate injury rate and average severity, resulting in them experiencing a moderate injury burden as a team. Conversely, the Xerox Golden Lions, who had the second lowest injury rate, had a high average severity of injury resulting in a high injury burden. This means, that although having a low number of injuries, these injuries resulted in many training and match days missed. Although teams may have a low injury rate, injuries of a high severity still represent a sizable burden to the team, resulting in many training and match days lost due to injury for that team. This highlights the importance of collecting severity data, and not simply injury rates on their own.